Slovenian Referendum on the new Law on the National

UNCLAS LJUBLJANA 000682

SIPDIS


UNCLASSIFIED

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PINR ECON SI
SUBJECT: Slovenian Referendum on the new Law on the National
Radio and Television, Sunday, September 25



1. (U) SUMMARY: On Sunday, September 25 Slovenians will
vote in a referendum on whether the new Law on National
Radio and Television should be implemented. The main issue
is whether the Parliament will have the authority to approve
a greater proportion of the Program Council members of
Public Radio and TV (RTV) and whether the Government (GOS)
will also have the authority to appoint four additional
members to the Supervisory Board, which reviews and approves
financial operations of RTV. The Government claims these
changes are necessary to ensure public media are more
representative of the diversity in Slovenia. Opposition
political parties, claiming that Government is seeking to
exert control over public radio and television, initiated
the referendum. Public debate has been raging in all media
with no clear conclusions or winners. At midnight on
September 23, all debate will stop and a period of silence
on the issue imposed prior to the referndum. Two days
before the referendum, a majority of Slovenians remain
undecided, and among those who have decided, a slightly
greater number seem inclined to overturn the new law. END
SUMMARY.


Background
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2. (U) The GOS initiated changes in the law and the
Parliament approved them earlier this year based on findings
by the Constitutional Court that the existing law was not
fully constitutional. The GOS' stated intention was to
improve programming and financial management, and to better
represent the broad spectrum of views in Slovenia. The
Opposition, however, claims that the GOS is trying to assure
itself strong influence in public radio and television by
stacking both the Program Council and Supervisory Board with
members sympathetic to its policies and views.


3. (U) According to the previous law, members of the Program
Council of Radio and Television Slovenia (RTV) were
nominated as follows: five members were nominated by the
parliament in order to respect the proportional
representation of parliamentary parties [deputies or other
public officials cannot be nominated]; one member was
nominated by the Italian minority community; one member was
nominated by Hungarian minority community; different social
groups [University, Academy of Sciences and Art, societies
of writers, film workers etc] nominated fifteen members; and
three members were elected by and from among the employees
of RTV.



3. (U) The new Law on Radio and Television Slovenia
increases the number of members of the Program Council to

29. It also changes the process of selection of members of
it. Italian and Hungarian minority communities will each
nominate one member, the Slovene Academy of Sciences and Art
will nominate one, two are to be nominated by the President
of the Republic on the recommendation of the registered
Religious Communities. Employees of the Radio and Television
Slovenia nominate three among themselves through direct
elections, the Parliament nominates five on the proposal of
parliamentarian parties and 16 are nominated by viewers and
listeners of Radio and Television Slovenia programs, by
Universities, and different civil society groups.


4. (U) The Supervisory Board reviews and approves financial
operations of RTV. Under the previous law, it consisted of
seven members, five of whom were appointed by the Parliament
and two by RTV employees. The new Supervisory Board
consists of eleven members. Five would be appointed by the
Parliament, four by the Government and two by the RTV
employees.


5. (U) By comparison, EU members have various approaches to
management of public radio and television. In Austria the
federal government together with local governments nominate
24 members, Workers Council nominates five, and Public
Council [listeners and spectators] six; in Belgium the
government nominates all members of Program Council; in
Denmark the minister of Culture nominates all; in Finland
the parliament nominates all; in France the President of the
Republic nominates one third, the President of the
Parliament one third and the President of the Senate one
third; in Sweden employees manage the public television
themselves.



6. (U) Comment: The Opposition sees the changes to the RTV
law as a means of subordinating RTV to the Government,
implying that the Government-dominated Supervisory Board
will not approve of financial operations if it does not like
the programming. It has also pointed to recent comments by
the Council of Europe (CoE),which indicate that the new law
may not meet all European norms and standards as support for
its position. Since a comparison with the previous law was
not made, however, it is not certain that the previous law
met CoE criteria either. The Opposition was also initially
hoping to make political hay with this referendum claiming
that it was not only a referendum on the law, but on the
Government as well. The weeks of inconclusive wrangling to
which the Slovene public has been subjected have ensured
that what this all really comes down to is a lot of
"floskula " or political hot air. It is not clear that the
changes proposed by this law will have a negative impact on
freedom of the media in Slovenia, or that if defeated, it
would negatively impact the Government's ability to rule.
End Comment.

ROBERTSON


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2005LJUBLJ00682 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED



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